Why Pray for New Believers?

Richard Foster wrote, “If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them, and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is a way of loving others.”

Exodus 17 is one of my favorite Bible stories. Verse 8 says,

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning (Exodus 17:8-11).

I’m sure you know the story of the Exodus. Israel was enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years. Through it all, they were regularly crying out to God. Finally, God answers their prayers, bringing ten judgments against Egypt. He also demonstrated his patience by giving the Egyptians, even after four centuries of oppression, an opportunity to repent. The Egyptians didn’t repent and so, in one climactic act of salvation, God divides the Red Sea, the Israelites cross over safely to the other side and, when the Egyptian army tries to follow, the sea closes up and they drown. The Israelites are saved.

On the heels of their deliverance from Egypt, God again goes to work on Israel’s behalf, providing bread from heaven and water in the desert. The people go to bed hungry and the next morning, as they step outside their tents, there’s bread all over the ground! Could life get any better? It’s like one continual birthday party for the Israelites. Their diet is cookies and cake. They’re eating manna and it tastes like cookies and cake. And not only does God give his children cookies and cake, in chapter 17, when the people are thirsty, the Lord orders Moses to strike a rock with his staff and water, like a geyser, comes flowing out.

Amazing salvation from Egypt followed by immediate answers to prayer through obvious miracles of provision. Cookies and cake appearing on the desert floor and water flowing from a rock. This is the context of Exodus 17:8.

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

The Israelites are immediately faced with an organized army bent on their destruction. Why emphasize the background to this attack by the Amalekites? Because I think this story offers a type, a wonderful paradigm for the experience of Christian salvation.

A typical scenario is for a person to live unhappily for many years. They may go through a bruising childhood or adolescence. As they get older, they may experience divorce, separation, or several painful romantic encounters. And even those who’re successful, those who manage to navigate around most of the rocks in the road, often feel empty inside.

It’s typical for folks to feel like the Israelites — like people in chains. You may be in bondage to depression, an eating disorder, substance abuse or pornography. You may feel enslaved by your past — to abuse or hurtful words spoken over you. But whether the unhappiness or slavery is external, through broken relationships and negative circumstances, or internal, the result of an emotional problem like depression or addiction, at some point in life, many people call out to God for help, just like the Israelites.

And when God intervenes, when he rescues you, when he saves you, most people immediately notice a change. You’re free. You experience an exodus of sorts. A weight of guilt rolls off your shoulders. You often experience joy. Initially, when you decide to follow Jesus, there’s a honeymoon period. God seems so close and answers our prayers so quickly. For many people who come to Jesus, at least at the beginning, prayer is the easiest thing in the world. We pray and God answers like he answered the Israelites in the desert. And he doesn’t answer with stale bread. He answers beyond your expectations with cookies and cake from heaven. It’s wonderful!

Then, usually out of the blue, on the heels of our salvation, we’re often confronted with a horrible attack by the Amalekites. There’s a kind of backlash. You lose your job. You get attacked by your family for your faith. You’re tempted to get involved in an old sin. Many new Christians suddenly experience one problem after another. Your car breaks down. You break a tooth. Your kids have problems. And the feeling of God’s closeness and availability fades. You try to get it back, but it feels like God is absent.

For many new believers, there comes a point where their experience of Christ seems like a distant dream. They begin to wonder: “Am I really saved? Did anything really happen to me when I was baptized in church? Was that real? Maybe it’s all just psychological. Maybe I just went through my religious phase. I’ve gone through other phases. Maybe that was just my religious phase and now I’m moving on. Maybe I don’t have the stuff to be a successful Christian.”

Have you ever experienced anything like that? You had a wonderful salvation experience, followed by a brief honeymoon of answered prayer, then, utterly unexpectedly, God seems far away? Your prayers don’t seem to make a difference? And you’re under attack, hard pressed on every side. Look, prayer is an act of love and one group that especially needs our prayers is new believers.

New believers are vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. Every young Christian will go through wilderness experiences in which it seems like God has utterly withdrawn his presence, so out of love, we pray! “Father, strengthen their ability to persevere. Give them the will to keep going. Father, don’t allow them to lose their grip on you.”

As an act of love, pray for anyone you know who’s decided to follow Christ in the last year or two — anyone who used to experience the sweet presence of God and who has now lost that sense of his presence. Intercession is one of the most loving things you could ever do.